LAS VEGAS — The knee-jerk crowd was already worked up about Ben McLemore and his shot that had gone wonky.Relax folks, it’s just Summer League and in Friday’s finale, the kid who was one-and-done at Kansas put on a show that should again pump up the hype machine.

McLemore scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the third quarter to lead the Kings to their first and only summer win, 93-87, over the Atlanta Hawks in the consolation bracket of the tournament.

“What I liked more than his shooting tonight was he had nine rebounds,” said new Kings coach Mike Malone, who has been in Vegas running practices with the summer team and observing games while assistant Chris Jent handled the bench duties.

Through the five games, McLemore might have gone just 26-for-78 from the floor (33.3 percent) and he’ll have to figure out the NBA 3-point distance after going just 7-for-36 (19.4 percent), but he also scored 26 points in a game against Toronto to go with Friday’s 27 on 10-for-21 shooting. Take away his errant 3-ball and and he was 8-for-13 from inside the arc.

At 6-foot-5 — and he’ll beef up his 195-pound frame — McLemore has the size coaches love at the 2, and he showed off his ability to run the floor and finish with thunderous jams that lifted special guest DeMarcus Cousins out of his seat on the bench. More impressive was the patience he showed on offense to put the ball on the floor and maneuver to get his shot. He and impressive second-round pick, point guard Ray McCallum played well together with several of McCallum’s 11 assists (with 12 points) went to McLemore.

“He’s a great kid and he’s working his butt off,” Malone said. “He’s given great focus and he’s willing to learn. At breakfast with him [Thursday], the big thing was keep your head up, don’t get down on yourself; we still love you, we still believe in you and I wanted him to come out here the last game and just be aggressive and play confidently, and he showed that in the third quarter.

That’s when McLemore completed a flurry of plays that left little doubt as to why the Kings nabbed the athletic shooting guard last month at No. 7. Allow the Kings’ official twitter feed to provide the highlights:

McLemore slams home the fastbreak dunk off the dish from McCallum! #KingsAllDay

“Ben is just not a shooter,” Malone said. “He’s an all-around basketball player. If your jump shot is not going, you’ve got to find different ways to affect the game and I thought he did that tonight.”

McLemore got plenty of encouragement from Cousins on the bench, as well as throughout summer league as the Kings veterans Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Thornton and Jimmer Fredette made stops in Vegas, with Thomas and Thornton participating in a couple of practices.

McLemore has a chance to be an instant contributor for a club that suddenly has a refreshed attitude and renewed hope since the sale of the team, the change in the front office and on the bench. The trade that sent Tyreke Evans to New Orleans likely puts Thornton in the starting lineup with McLemore behind him.

“Even if they didn’t make that trade, I know I was going to come in and work my hardest and work for a spot,” McLemore said. “At the same time it’s a great opportunity for me.”

So great that the native of Wellston, Mo., will spend much of the offseason in Sacramento working on his game, preparing for the increased speed and intensity levels of the game and the decreased spacing on the floor, the great shifts from college to the NBA that he already discovered in Vegas.

“I’m going to work on my all-around game, ball handling, keep shooting, get a lot of shots up, and just work on a lot of things I need to improve on,” McLemore said.

10 for 21 is hardly a showcase…..given that its summer league. The fact is he had a terrible summer league. I dont give a lot of importance to summer league, but……………why try to hype what was a very poor over all performance.

You clearly lack knowledge. For a shooting guard to shoot a hair under 50% from the field is a showcase. Not to mention all the open court finishes exclamated by the highlight reel dunk. Yes it’s summer league and he struggled throughout besides the 2 games where he burst out, but give him credit for playing well yesterday.